Buy Intrusion 2

Recommended By Curators

"The original Intrusion was published to Newgrounds in 2008. This 2012 follow-up is a must-have for run 'n gun fans!"

Reviews

“It is a meeting point between old game design and new, with every other moment punctuated with some of the most thrilling level and boss design to grace the genre. As improbable as it may sound, this game made by one guy not only stands up to the classics, it is every bit as good as Gunstar Heroes and Contra.”9/10 – Destructoid

“If you’re a fan of the genre, then this one is a no-brainer, and a wholehearted recommendation.”87/100 – IndieGameMag

“I have to tell you about Intrusion 2, because it’s like a game from my stupid dreams about games that couldn’t exist.” – PCGamer

Steam Big Picture

About This Game

Intrusion 2 is an action platformer set in a sci-fi environment on a reserve planet occupied by a hostile military corporation conducting forbidden weapon research. Intrusion 2 is inspired by classic 16bit era sidescrollers and focuses on classic fast-paced action combined with modern physics and animation.

This game... changes you. I was never the same after shooting lasers at ninjas and robo-snakes while snowboarding down a mountain after defeating a fist-pumping helicopter. It's as if your 6 year old brain mashed together every idea of robots, guns, and explosions it ever had.

Intrusion 2 is a modern take on Contra/Metal Slug. And when I say modern, it is not an empty word!

However, let's start with what is familiar: Intrusion 2 is a 2D side-scroller with action and platforming, shooting soldiers and robots (some of which can be piloted) while occasionally negotiating some jumps. A lot of games have tried to ape the aforementioned classical games, but very few have come close to touch their greatness. Usually, they are dull with scarce enemies, repetitive levels and clunky controls.

The controls of Intrusion 2 are not beyond any criticism. There is some floatiness to the main character, but it does not make it clunky. It just feels weird, but it is still reactive and shooting is instant. One of the reasons for this feeling is that the characters are not sprites with all their animation frames pre-rendered. Every limb, every object in the game is actually controlled like a puppet by the physics engine. A modern spin that sets this game apart from its ancestors, in addition to the ability to shoot at 360°. The physics make the game feel both awkward and awesome at the same time, as robot legs fly around and kill soldiers with their fall. And there are mechas with grappling hooks battling by throwing rocks at each other when they are not flying around pulled by their ropes before a sword finish.

Sounds cool? Wait until you see the boss fights. I have rarely seen such amazing boss fights. They have tons of different stages and are hard while still being easy to learn, making them an entertaining challenge. They also look good, which helps making those fights memorable.

However, if the game keeps things fresh and cool during the first hour, once the novelty factor wears off the levels feel too lengthy and look-alike. There is very little variation in the settings and formula despite the promising snowboard chase at the start. The music is not especially interesting and too repetitive/annoying rather quickly. The robots have terrific art and animation, but the backgrounds look oddly photo-realistic and not very awe-inspiring. Since I am tackling the negative points, the difficulty associated with whimsical physics might frustrate quite a number of players. If you are not a good player, set the game on easy and enjoy the awesome beginning. If you like a good challenge with still more leeway than a very demanding game like Contra, you will no doubt pull through the short campaign and have a good time despite the less entertaining later levels.

A concession to make to the physics engine is that the game runs slowly. The framerate does not go higher than 30 frames per second, and some slow-downs can be experienced even on a good machine. This is most likely due to the fact that the game was coded in Flash, just like the original Binding of Isaac. Surprisingly, despite the intensive use of physics, there are very few bugs and issues. The controls are well tuned so that the player can instinctively achieve any action without pestering, such as grabbing cords or moving over physics-bound objects.

As a conclusion, this game is not perfect but an impressive example of what a modern Metal Slug/Contra would be. There are a lot of very cool stuff in here, so I definitively recommend trying out this game. Especially for the battles against larger enemies and the boss fights. The game feels like it is great and could almost be placed up there with Metal Slug/Contra, but it is dragged down by a few negative aspects and lack of variety once the beginning is behind.

Good news, most if not all of my gripes appear to have been corrected in the next game from the same developer: Jetpack Squad. This is something very promising that I am definitively looking forward to, and hopefully Intrusion 2 was the stepping stone to a masterpiece!

As a side-scrolling 2D shooter with wacky-but-fun physics it's incredibly fun. Soundtrack is great, controls are tight and intuitive, gameplay is awesome. The plot requires a bit of thinking because it's not inherently evident, but if you want to know it beforehand I've written what I think it is below. WARNING SPOILERS

You are an unnamed agent (we'll call him Lance) sent to a planet crontrolled by a hostile military force to...do something, I assume destroy the expiremental weapon they've developed. You job is to control Lance and get him to their center of operations and destroy that weapon.

QUICK TIP: If you're having trouble downloading this game, try rebooting your computer in "safe mode with network capabilities" and then downloading it. It worked for me, and you can very easily Google how to do that. Once fully downloaded and installed you can just do a regular reboot again and it'll work fine.

This is without a doubt my favorite side-scrolling shooter ever, and it should come highly recommended to anybody who likes games that can deliver both incredible spectacle and intense difficulty. And when I say spectacle, I do mean it: if anybody ever tells you indie games just cannot deliver the same kind of epic setpieces as AAA-titles, point them towards this game and then smile as they go, "What?! WHAT?!! WHAAAAAATT??!!!1!" Hell, stick a facecam on 'em & upload it to YouTube, and you'll probably get a couple thousand views.

The more difficult the level, the more awesomely ridiculous the setpieces: from fist-pumping gunships, to wielding grenade-launchers off the backs of giant wolves, to a gun that is also a Tron-bike. And that's not even getting into the final boss, who I won't spoil here. So yeah, the presentation: awesome. The graphics are pixelly but more than detailed enough to convey the awesome action-scenes, and the soundtrack does an excellent job backing it all up. It's exactly the kind of fist-pumping hard rock you want out of a title like this, and it gets absolutely zero complaints from me.

But I also mentioned difficulty, didn't I? Oh boy, the difficulty in this game... Okay, for the record: *yes* there is an Easy option, and it should at least let you get as far as the first boss fight. But this is not the kind of game where people who're just interested in the story can just coast along on Easy without having to worry about dying. This is a game where you pay attention, or you die. Literally, since the boss fights are all about memorizing their attack patterns and figuring out how to dodge them. And you won't do that on your first go. Or your second. Or third.

Or tenth.

But for as challenging as they are, these fights are not hard because it's unclear what to do. All the attacks make it pretty clear how to go about dodging them; it's just that the bosses have so much health that it's hard to perfectly remember and dodge those attacks so many times over the course of a fight. You *will* take damage: the trick is just doing more damage to them first.

If you're the kind of person who saw this game or saw a Let's Play and thought, "Man I wanna try that." then you'll probably make it to the final boss on Easy. But if you're thinking of recommending this to someone as a casual indie title, forget it. This is not something you play on the bus home from work: this is something you play til 1 in the morning, when you finally beat that boss after 2 hours of trying & failing and you unironically shout, "IN YOUR FACE!" at your monitor. That's a damn good feeling, but only if it's actually what you're looking for in a game.

That's the Easy setting. As for Medium, it is exclusively the domain of hardcore fans or shooter veterans. Nobody else need apply. The Hard setting is for masochists who think Metal Gear Solid 2 at European Extreme just isn't challenging enough (yes I'm serious). However it is worth noting that despite those insane challenges, the game *does* actually have an initial difficulty curve. You won't get blown away in the first 10 minutes, if that's what worries you.

If there are any downsides to the game, it's that (A) all that great challenging gameplay doesn't really have a narrative to go with it, and (B) the developer seems sadly reluctant to fix the downloading issue mentioned above (or tell people how to circumvent it: I spent a good hour finding out that tip I put at the start). The narrative is... barely there, to be honest. There's so little of it that you can't really call it bad or distracting: it certainly doesn't detract from the experience. It's just kind of a missed opportunity for the game to show that all your hard work actually has in-universe consequences.

The downloading issue is annoying yes, but to be fair: when the game was originally released it wasn't there. It appeared after a patch and was never fixed. So I'm counting that as a mark against the dev, not the game itself. And again, the tip up top should work.

Who would like this?- People who like side-scrolling shooters.- People who like spectacle in their action games.- People who like seriously challenging/punishing difficulty.- People who like cheap indie games that are nonetheless stuffed with content.

If you fall into any of those categories, the game is definitely worth its retail price and *ABSOLUTELY* worth picking up if it's on sale.

Who wouldn't like this?- People who play games mainly for the story or characters.- People who don't like great challenge that's based on pattern-recognition.- People who don't like side-scrolling shooters.- People who don't like fist-pumping gunships.

Those people should stay far away from this title. It will not float their boat, or any other flotation device for that matter.

Aside from the download issue, the game is actually a technical marvel. It runs entirely in Flash, believe it or not, and it runs smooooooooooooth. Like, we're talking Barry-White-pouring-a-Colt-45-over-buttery-velvet smooth here. It never lags or stutters, the install file is small and it doesn't eat up too much processing power. It's also surprisingly long (factoring in how often you'll die) so if you buy it then at least you'll get your money's worth.

This game is the perfectly distilled essence of Side-Scrolling Shooter. What that means for you is your call. But for me, it means a 9/10.

Intrusion 2 is a sci-fi sidescrolling 2D shooter/platform with progressive difficulty and a surprisingly good mechanical (mecha) design for bosses and vehicles.It shares a lot of elements from Gunstar Heroes or other games from Treasure soft.(with the exception of combining weapons) for the intense action and creativity with the environment and boss encounters which are few, but hellish.Could be enjoyed with a gamepad, in that case it uses the 2nd lever to command the shooting direction.Otherwise it's done with the mouse.

On the net there're a lot of quoting Metal Slug as similar to this game.Mostly wrong, the game plays very differently from the almost carefree action of the Neo Geo serie, don't get this game right away thinking it's M.S., accept that's different or you'll get a wrong opinion and get disappointed.

This is a GREAT and original game not a clone of anything.

In I2 the use of vehicles like mechs is possible, but only for few occasions, the rest of the action relies on this man/cyborg and the arsenal of weapons found during the mission.There're no power ups, only ammo available from crates or weapons dropped by enemies and health capsules of various refill capacity.No lives, only a health bar and free re-trials from checkpoints.It's not divided in stages, anyway it's possible to try several times portions of the game using checkpoints or/and loading from the pause menu.It's possible on a few situations to ride/use the following:A giant wolfGunner MechSword MechGrapple Mech

Gameplay:The controls are not so easy to master, especially it requires a lot of practice dodging while shooting. It's available the remapping option and regardless its limit, helps many different playstyles.It's not a senseless action what this game gives: it's a challenge. In some parts of the game there's a slight difficult peak if no ammo has been saved previously. And the unique in-game physics it's a constant part of both trouble and an additional weapon for the player: while a bit strange or awkward used correctly you could use boulders, crates, even dropped weapons to kill enemies. And not only using the Grapple Mech, since each different weapon has has a different knockback power.

Graphics:Great mecha design, bosses are unforgettable (and unforgiving), wonderful backgrounds. Soldiers and wolfs are affected by the physics so animation seems strange and not quite natural.

Storyline:If played without interruptions is quite clear that the "intrusion" in enemy territory is a wonder spawned from an action movie. Looking on some sequences is far from being without sense. It's a shame that even if it's structured as a single mission no hints are given on who's and why the main protagonist have to battle his way to the final boss. There's an android in the game, maybe the main chara is a cyborg? Only pure personal speculation.

Music:Maybe the worst part. A bit repetitive even for the techno-addicted, anyway works well with the hardboiled action of some parts of the game.

Overall:For the low price this game offers a lot of challenge, and some replayability for that reason. It's worth for the ending boss encounter alone.One of the worst for difficult and best for what it does/looks like/challenge.Surely would love a Intrusion 3 for more mechs and crazy bosses.

This is probably the best game I've ever played. Everything feels like it's held together by paper clips, the destructable and interactable terrain along with the spot-in AI combined with the unique bad guys comes together to make you feel like a god when you kill something. Usually it seems like a boss is just "not bothering using all his power" or something, but everything feels like it is chucking everything it's got at you, and it is brilliant. Intrusion 2 is most certainly worth it, has one of the best final bosses ever, and it is most certainly a video game.

There's a section of the game where you're snowboarding down an avalanche on part of a dropship which you just destroyed fighting cyborg ninjas with rocket launchers who also fire ballistic missiles with giant mecha-snakes inside of them at you.

+ Great sense of action especially the first few levels. Game holds nothing back. +Great variety of weapons + 3 different mechs to pilot + AMAZING Last Boss fight. Really surprised me how good it was. Definitly the highlight of the game for me+ Nice length, does not wear itself out + Interesting physics however it can get annoying at times (objects get in your way)

The Bad:

-Controls may be a slight issue, one of the few 2d games where k/m was better than the controller. -Because of the physics some boss battles may be more reliant on luck than skill -Can be a bit frustrating at times.

Conclusion:If your looking for a solid 2d action game than this is for you.

I got this game with a Humble Bundle a while ago and thought it was pretty mediocre after playing the first level. I must've seen some spark of greatness in it though, because I kept it in my "Currently Playing" folder instead of moving it to my Steam Graveyard of games I am finished with or don't care about. Boy am I glad I did. I booted it up and after another slightly less mediocre first part to the second level, I got to ride on a wolf mount. It was a little awkward to control, but I felt powerful and had a lot of fun.

From there it only got better. Epic boss fights, a few fun guns (laser and grenade launcher), three different pilotable mech suits, and non-stop action. If you like Metal Slug, Contra, and sometimes frustrating physics, this game is for you! And for any achievement hunters out there, it's not too difficult to 100%.

INTRUSION 2 is a 2D run n' gun action platformer along the lines of Metal Slug or more vaguely Contra. This is one badass, fun game, with epic, memorable bosses and creative elements like some pretty basic physics and destruction. You can destroy log bridges to send everyone falling to their doom, blow up the supports of watchtowers. Crush enemies under boulders you push over. Physics like that, which add to the fun. The enemies can take a beating and the weapons feel good, but even if there is a variety of weapons, not many feel different from one another. The levels seem like a marathon. They are so long you might find yourself wondering when they end. This is probably good.

Earlier I mentioned epic bosses. I don't use that term lightly. It makes me feel weird, but let me tell you about the first boss, a helicopter or hovercraft with arms with multiple phases. If its not shooting at you, its dropping soldiers out. If its not trying to hand pound you into the ground, its literally crawling after you. Its insane and awesome. It is very memorable and covers a lot of ground.

To keep things fresh, you can pilot mech suits... if not grab the gun off of a destroyed mech and use it on your enemies. Oh and if that's too normal for you, in the first level, you can ride a giant Arctic wolf. Its pretty nice.

The game is challenging, you do have a health bar, and ammo depletes, and you can die more from the controls than you do anything else, BUT the game is very forgiving, with plenty of checkpoints.

The controls take a bit of getting use to. You have your standard jump, duck and weapon switch keys, but then to aim you use your mouse. This allows for more precise aim, but I'm more used to the Contra controls of having 8 direction shooting instead of precision. If you're used to Teraria, you'll be used to this. There is floaty jumping that can take some getting used to and the physics seem really light and springy. The boxes will bounce around if lightly nudged. Some of the animation is springy like old cartoon characters. That is probably Flash animation for you.

It took a while to get over it, but when I did, I found this game to be really fun to play. There are crazy Holy ♥♥♥♥ moments, and moments where the physics can have some unique experiences for a 2D run n gun game, such as seeing a mech jump onto a floating box. The box bounced the mech up and kinda floated away just enough for a giant fish to eat the mech. That wasn't supposed to happen, but it did, and it was cool.

Great game. Enemy&boss designs are awesome(and I actually mean it!), physics effects are actually useful, music fits the gameplay. Most of the problems come from the fact that it was made with flash. Controls are somewhat laggy, framerate seems to be capped at 30, but still doesn't feel smooth, bad gamepad support, etc. None of these problems are game-breaking though, just a minor irritation, for me at least.Update. I see that many reviewers compare it with Contra/Metal Slug and don't like the added physics effects. Well, this is NOT Contra. To me, its more like Abuse, which also was slower, controlled with mouse and involved slightly more thinking than average platform shooter. Physics, in my opinion, adds to the game, making every playthrough slightly unique, creating unexpected opportunities as well as irritations. I heard, this is called "emergent gameplay", but Nintendo kids seem to prefer games they can memorize and play by reflexes alone, instead of improvising, even a little.